Monday, March 12, 2007

The Third Sunday of Great LentThe Veneration of the Cross

This Sunday marks the middle of Great Lent. On this day, we venerate the Holy and Life-Giving Cross of our Lord Jesus.

In her wisdom, the Church knows that at this point in the Fast, if we’ve been struggling at all with the disciplines of Great Lent, we’re likely to be tired, perhaps even bitter.Any kind of self-denial is difficult—it may put us in a “bad mood.” We may begin to think more about ourselves than about the true focus of the Fast, which is of course to share more deeply in the Life of God made known to us in Jesus.

And thus the veneration of the Cross at this mid-way point in Great Lent.If our eyes have turned overly much on our own struggles, this day offers the opportunity for our sights to be raised: to focus on the great sign of Christ which is at the very center our faith and our common life as the Church.As St. Paul writes, we proclaim Christ and Him Crucified – Jesus Christ the Crucified One.The Cross stands before us as the ever-present reminder of who God is for us.It reminds us that God the Son emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant.It reminds us of the wondrous offering of Christ our great High Priest, the offering of Himself that accomplishes all that is necessary to reconcile God and man.

Because of Christ Jesus, because of his offering of Himself on the hard wood of the Cross, death is overthrown, sin is forgiven, and we now have access to "mercy and grace to help in time of need."

In the lesson from Hebrews, we are exhorted to move forward with boldness, to approach our crucified Lord with boldness, confident that He offers whatever it is we need to endure – and not merely endure, but to triumph.

As we approach, what word to we hear from Him?What is the Gospel for this day?It’s an unsettling word, but it is truly the word of Life:He says to his disciples, “Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it.”

That may sound like strange counsel to those of us who are struggling with the Fast, or just struggling to make it through another day.But this exhortation to take up our cross is not a counsel of despair.It is not an exhortation to annihilation—these words are a calling to enter into the life of Jesus, to inhabit the pattern of his life, to give ourselves away in Him, living and loving in such a way that we give it all and mysteriously gain our salvation.

And so, we venerate the Cross: the symbol of death that is transfigured into a sign of our Lord’s victory, as well as our death and the victory we share in Him. This Cross is for us the Tree of Life – no longer guarded by an angel’s flaming sword, but now itself a doorway into Paradise.

As we venerate the cross, as we kiss the Cross of our Lord this day, ponder the meaning of that kiss.Is it the kiss of an unrepentant sinner – the kiss of Judas?Or is it a meaningless gesture, a beautiful but empty ritual?

Or is it something more?

Brethren, it can be something more.Our veneration of the cross can be true adoration, of blossoming faith and tender trust, a sign of our willingness to take up our cross and walk the cruciform pathway before us – the way of Jesus, the way of the Cross, the Way of Life.

Upon the hard wood of the Cross, Jesus Christ has conquered the world.As we make our way through the rest of Great Lent, keep your eyes upon the Crucified One.

to Father Matthew Jackson and our friends from Christ the Saviour Church in McComb, Mississippi. A congregation of twenty-seven gathered for our first Divine Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts on Friday evening, March 9.